


Better late...

by V0ID115



Category: Original Work
Genre: Conversations, Family, Gen, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-20 00:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9467534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V0ID115/pseuds/V0ID115
Summary: Having lost his job and everything he earned so far, a now bitter man spends his time trying to forget what happened in non-alcoholic beverages. It'd probably be a lot easier without a brat pestering him to no end.





	

A shout was heard in the distance. “5 minutes left!”

People were gathering near the balcony. I was sitting there, alcohol-free cider in my hand, looking at the sky.

Life has been quite bizarre lately. I just lost everything I did in life.

I’m a scientist. I research everything around me. No exceptions. Ranging from biology to psychology to sociology to even the molecular composition of a pudding, I’ve analysed and studied it all.

I was developing a theory that’d determine the origin of the universe and the fate of human race. I’d be recognized as the one who’d answered the millennial question of “What is the man’s purpose”. Over five years I have studied and gathered evidence for my thesis. I was mere two weeks away from publishing the article and receiving the awards.

Then, a newcomer scientist brought a thesis elaborated in one month disproving all my studies, making my entire research fruitless and replaced me.

I am now unemployed, discouraged and sitting in my parents’ chair at the balcony, as everyone gathers nearby to watch the fireworks. It is New Year’s Eve, so everyone is excited over it.

Me? I’m just staring at the sky as I sip more of my soda. I don’t drink. Never did, never will.

After years of research, I’d almost proven that there was nothing beyond the sky and the stars. That there was nothing below the ground aside from dirt and Earth’s core. I’d almost proven the end of human life beyond death, as no one could prove me wrong after analysing the human mind mechanisms.

Then, some wanna-be-hippie manages to successfully link previously unexplainable events, specific frequencies emitted by humans and religion together and BOOM. Everyone loses their mind.

And now, here I am, staring at the dark sky after losing my previous job and, consequentially my house, to a retired monk. I held my stoic expression as everyone cheered. Fireworks sparkled in the sky. “Happy 2017” I muttered, slowly sipping into my drink as my relatives emptied their champagne glasses almost as fast as they refilled it.

As they celebrated the new year, I could only ponder what they thought this senseless celebration would do to their lives. After all, fireworks did not work any magic or fix their mistakes. Another spin around the sun would not fix misery or poverty. 356,25 days would not magically solve their problems.

I sighed loudly. Perhaps too loudly, for a brat approached me with curious eyes. My nephew to be precise, wearing his never changing black clothes and with a new piercing I don’t recall in his right ear. How he got his parents’ permission to do that, I have no idea, but that didn’t matter. What did matter is that he looked at me quizzically for a long time. I glared at him, trying to make him leave, but he never left.

“What’s the matter, uncle? The fireworks are not to your liking?” Asked my prepubescent companion.

“The arranging of chemicals and their combustion at every January first is not something that intrigues me.” I answered dryly. He recoiled a bit, but not too much to give up on interacting with me. He was bothersome.

“Well, I find them somewhat pretty. Although I can see why you don’t like them.”

I raised an eyebrow to his statement. “You do?”

“I don’t like fireworks either. Sure, they have their own value, but I’d much rather watch the sky.”

“You’d rather watch this bleak sky with barely any stars in it than fireworks?”

“Yes...” he replied quietly. "... don't you?"

I looked at him, confused for a while, before asking him why he’d prefer such a thing.

He sat beside me on the ground and lifted his head, staring straight up to the clouds. “I love the night. It’s so calm. Even if I do enjoy the day where I can go out and do all sorts of things, it’s always nice to have the night to relax and refresh from the exhaustion of the day.”

“I don’t get what everyone, especially you-” I pointed at him with my half empty glass. “-mean with these artistic interpretations. All I see is the atmosphere without light. I don’t get what it’s meant to be all poetic about it.”

He sat in silence looking at me for a minute.

“… You don’t believe in anything, do you? God, Gaia, Mother earth... Nothing at all, right?” He deadpanned me the question. I wanted to answer right away, but the boy was sharp. Infuriatingly so. Lying would have the opposite effect, as he was too sharp to be fooled. He was always a lot more perceptive than his parents. Wish they were as smart as their kid.

I sighed deeply before replying. “… I don’t know what to believe in. I never believed in god, but a few weeks ago, someone proved with science that there is something beyond this world. I don’t know what to think of that.”

He seemed in thought for a bit before continuing. “You don’t like the idea of afterlife or ‘supernatural’ things?”

“It’s not a matter of liking or disliking it. It’s a matter of I don’t know where to go. You know your grandfather is a religious fanatic. Raising under his roof took a tool for me and your father. After abandoning religion, I’ve turned to philosophy and started to seek purpose. I never even believed in a ‘soul’. However, right now, the bastard who replaced me as the head researcher is now writing a thesis about how human beings and their so called ‘souls’ can affect reality around the individual. With MY co-workers. How am I supposed to face all that?”

Once again, he sat in silence. He closed his eyes for a bit, deep in thought.

“Well, you could always try a simple ‘Hi!’” He replied after some mulling.

I felt my eye twitch in irritation over how dense he was. “DON’T YOU GET IT?” I snapped. “My entire life has just been ripped off me! All my beliefs, all my moral and ethical standings have been refuted and even my previous sense of purpose has been invalidated! How the hell am I supposed to just ‘go along with it?’” I yelled at him. He just stared blankly at me and turned his gaze away from me.

 Realizing how rude I just was, I take another sip from my drink to fill in the silence. He starts swinging his feet around, probably getting bored from talking with me.

“I mean, you said it yourself that it was proven, right? What are you going to do? Pretend it doesn’t exist?”

Though you can tell in his tone it was merely a jest, I still felt the jab behind those words. Has he no tact at all? I stare at him, but he doesn’t even shudder at my glare. ‘Gutsy brat, this nephew of mine.’ I think to myself.

Regardless, he was right. There was not much I could do about that. I lower my head in loss, as he keeps swinging his feet until he kicks the table nearby and the drinks nearly tip over. Flustered by his almost accident, he coughs a bit, but we sit in silence once again.

“I’m not sure if I get it, but, from what you just told me, you lost your job, right?”

Rolling my eyes, I answered him. “Not quite. I just lost my position as head researcher. Right now, I’m no more than a goon to the current head researcher’s projects.”

He then beams a smile at me. “Well, things are a lot better than your sullen face led to believe. What you need to do now is to go to the new head researcher and ask for the thesis for you to study. Simple and clean.”

“Are you… Are you actually serious?”

“You know pretty well I’m not a good comedian. If you want though, I can try telling the joke about the chicken, the priest and the violi-”

“DON’T!” I shut his mouth in panic. My career has just been turned into a joke. I don’t need another bad one right now. “I believe in you. Just… enlighten me on your idea.” I continued, taking my hand off his mouth.

He stared at me a bit before continuing. “Rude.” He spat. “But anyway. You said that you still have your job and you work with the guy, right?” He said, casually picking up a can of soda he seems to have forgotten at the beginning of the party. “So, why don’t you ask for his thesis and read about it so you can do part of the project? You still love science and stuff, right?”

I face-palmed upon hearing his answer. Rubbing my temples, I carefully choose how to reply to his ludicrous proposal.

“Have you paid attention to the conversation, like, AT ALL? All my work has been invalidated by that guy. Even my beliefs from my philosophy book that I’ve written have been refuted! My entire life so far has been for naught!”

“So what? Is there something stopping you from moving forward?” He deadpanned back at me. “You said your entire life SO FAR has been disproven, right? So, get on and move forward.” He concluded, sipping on his now probably stale soda. He obviously failed in looking composed when saying that, for his disgusted expression upon drinking the now warm drink has broken his poise. Regardless, his point still stood.

“You know…” He carried on while I had lost all momentum to talk back. “… You always taught me to question everything. Even myself and what I believed in. Now that this finally happened to you, you can’t face the reality that ‘oh, no… I was wrong… how saaaad.’” He said, leaning back and looking at the sky. “You are quite analytical and one of the best researchers-"

"If I'm the only researcher you know, it doesn't count." I interrupted him, but he carried on.

"-I know, but anyway. I’ll let you into something I realized recently: Just because you can’t prove something, doesn’t mean it’s false.”

He then pointed at the sky. “Tell me something, Uncle Eli: Even if you don’t like it at first, what if there IS something beyond all this? What if there IS an afterlife? What if there IS a soul in all of us?” He then paused at me and stared with his dark eyes. “What if life itself is something we cannot even comprehend?”

I could not reply. Many of his questions seemed ridiculous at first, but he was forcing myself to consider those things. As I gave a chance to face these possibilities, things looked quite bizarre and confusing. To begin with, so many religions talked about afterlife and other weird, unscientific things. So many different beliefs talked about different concepts of existence and purpose.

“So, what church do you recommend, punk? The church of ‘goth Jesus?’ Seems to be working fine for you.” I said picking his wristband. It had a drawing of skulls and spikes on it. ‘How the hell does this kid get away with my fanatic brother…?’ I thought as he took his wristband back.

“The church of ‘Screw you, old fart’.” He said, sticking his tongue out, grinning. “Religion is a man-made thing. You don’t have to be a genius to know it.” He placed his wristband back and examined his arm. “Churches won’t do you any good. What probably will though is doing some self-study. Read about afterlife and such.”

“Those things are, well, at least they were supposed to be, mere myth or folklore. Witchcraft and children’s bedtime story.” I replied, cynical, like how my mother always despised I was.

“And so was the sun being the center of the galaxy, the earth being round, alchemy and so forth. ‘Magic is just unexplained science’ is something a friend told me once. If you think about it, planes flying and dry ice may as well be witchcraft for people three hundred years ago,. Who’s to say that ‘souls’ is not science three hundred years from now?”

I stumbled on my words, to which he took advantage of and continued.

“Before you even say-” He took my glasses and tied his hair behind him to look a bit more like me, but frowning. “‘ _Next thing you’ll be saying is that I should believe in unicorns and the tooth fairy’,_ no, I’m not. The more you study, the more you’ll come to see how life truly is. Hasn’t it always been like this?”

The brat was now smirking at me. I took my glasses and ruffled his hair.

“Wipe that shit-eating grin off your face, brat. Winning one round against me doesn’t put in position to brag.” I said, affording a small smile. Unfortunately, upon noticing it, his already wide grin became impossibly larger. I immediately frowned afterwards, looking away before he said anything else to mock me.

“HAH! So you DO know that I’m right. NAILED IT!” He got up, yelling in excitement.

“Hush it, brat. Luna is already asleep. Want to wake her up?”

Seem the threat worked. The boy shut his trap with a loud smack of his hand covering his mouth. Luna, the recently born daughter of my best friend, Lucas, was a light sleeper. Her parents tried so hard to make her sleep before the fireworks started, so they were a bit on edge. Giving a general glance towards them, seems like she was still asleep safely cradled in her mother’s arms.

“Is she…?”

“Still asleep? Yes. Now sit down and, just for once, try to respect your elders, just for once.” I said, nudging him.

“Yes, Uncle Sarcasm.”

“It’s ‘Elias’, you know.”

“Yeah. I don’t care though.” He said, sticking out his tongue once more.

“Really? In that case, I suppose I won’t care to keep the twin headed dragon tattoo on your back a secret from your father.” I threatened.

“WHA-? You wouldn’t…”

I merely grinned at him. Judging by his loss of words, the message has been conveyed.

“How much to keep you quiet?”

“How about a weekend without you messing with my laboratory?”

His jaw dropped instantly.

“Whaaaaaa…? But then, who will I pester this Saturday?” He asked with puppy dog eyes… well, eye. His right eye was covered by his fringe, so he only had one going for him. For his misfortune, I got used to it through the years.

“Someone who does not work with industrial robots and-slash-or dangerous chemical solutions would be a good start.”

“But what would be the fun in that?”

“Perhaps not melting my carpet comes to mind.” I bark back, if only to attempt to intimidate him before I lose any more morale with the guy. It did not work.

Sighing, he replies, unfazed as ever. “Fun times, weren’t they?”

“… Okay, they were.” I said, as I cannot contain my snickering at the recollection of finding him in my hazmat suit and a huge hole on the floor and an empty flask written ‘Do Not Open’. “Will you ever learn one day?”

“Not if I can help it!”

We both shared a good laugh afterwards. He then started to look at the sky once more, as I thought over what we just talked about.

“Hey kid.”

“I have a name you know.” He raised his voice. Always hated being treated like a child, and seems like I was finally getting to him.

“Yes, I know, Dark Lord McEdgy.”

“IT’S LUCIO!”

“… How come someone whose very name means ‘light’ wear so many dark clothes and accessories?”

“Well, Elias, it’s called ‘individual style’. Something that perhaps the folks from the seventeenth century wouldn’t know from their rags and from your Alzheimer.”

“Okay, now that was just rude, you sassy bat.” I glared at him as I said it. For whatever reason, however, he burst up in laughter. I incredulously stared at him waiting for him to compose himself. After a while, he finally does.

“‘Sassy bat’. Now that’s just golden.” He says in between chuckles. “That’s why it has to be you, uncle. Who else am I going pester during week days and call me weird names as I try to empty their fridge?”

“Probably anyone in their good mind, I may guess.” I said, chuckling at his foolishness. “Why? In your neighbourhood people just casually let you do whatever you want in their houses?”

“Nope. They just aren’t fun at all.” He replied as if it was the most obvious thing ever. “You may have become grumpier than I’d like in the last few years, but I still recall the times we spent together when you took me out for ice-cream after school. You’d always tell me about the color of things and the beauty beneath nature. Sure, I was 8 years old at the time, but I still remember those days.” He said, picking up a pebble from his pocket and putting in my hand.

“You gave me this, uncle. You told me that, no matter how small something was, because it simply existed, it was amazing on its own.”

I said that…?

… I did… so long ago.

What had changed? What was it?

… That’s right. Somewhere along the way, as time passed, I never found a purpose, did I? Have I really grown desolate to the point I lost the joy that I could find even in pebbles? It’s kind of embarrassing to be comforted by my nephew. At the same time, when I look at him by my side, nonchalantly drinking his soda looking at the stars, he seems so happy and resolved.

I decided to look up and try to see things differently.

“Lucio?”

“Yes, uncle Eli?”

“How come did you started to like to gaze at the stars?”

He took a deep breath and answered: “You told me to look at them and think of them fondly, because the only thing that’d make life worthwhile is loving the world we live in. Now, whenever I look at them, I think of how sad the sky would look without them and I thank each individual star for being there.”

“Seems like a fair point.”

Not too long after that, someone tapped Lucio’s shoulder. It was his mother.

“Lucio, my darling. It’s time to come home. We have to go to church tomorrow, you know.” His mother said softly.

“Just give me and the boy a few more minutes, ma’am” I said, defying all expectations. “We’re having a man-to-man talk here, but I’ll release your son shortly.”

His mother nodded and went to bring her husband to the car.

“Guess you gotta go now.”

“Yeah…” Lucio said, dejected. I scratched my head in thought for a bit, when something suddenly dawned on me.

“Well, since I’ll have to start my work from scratch, I could use an assistant in the weekends to help me with my research. If you’d decide to come over, it’d be nice. You’d get some work experience and I’d get someone to tag along my fresh start. Guess better late than never, am I right?”

Lucio looked at me incredulous. A smirk was forming in his face. He was about to say something, but I interrupted him.

“Don’t get cocky. I told you that this one victory doesn’t make you any better than me. If anything, I’m MILES ahead of you, for all I taught you about science. And by the way, don’t forget I said ‘assistant’, not chemical terrorist. You got that?”

He blinked at me twice, before bursting in laughter, nodding, for he was too busy attempting to catch his breath to say anything. We then sat together in silence a bit more before his mother called him. As he was getting up, I called him once more.

“Hey, Edge-Lord, you know what?” I said, looking at the vast sky once more.

“What, uncle Old Fart?” He said, getting up to go home with a smirk in his face.

“I guess the sky is pretty tonight.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be released on the new year's eve, but I guess it took a lot longer than I expected. Regardless, I'm pleased with its quality. Thanks for reading it. Have a wonderful new year, everyone!


End file.
